The Register reports on a study from the December issue of Science:

By analysing ancient algae found in deep-sea core samples, Professor Matthew Huber and his colleagues determined that the mile-thick ice which now covers the south polar continent formed around 34 million years ago. At that stage the atmosphere held much more CO2 than it does now, some 600 parts per million (ppm) as opposed to today’s level of 390 ppm.

Although the Antarctic ice sheet formed while CO2 levels were more than 33% higher than today, Washington spends heaps of cash on CO2-reduction boondoggles each year. Antarctica isn’t the only icy show in town, but Prof. Huber described the threat of CO2 melting an ice sheet in terms that would make Al Gore spew brimstone:

“If we continue on our current path of warming we will eventually reach that tipping point,” he says. “Of course after we cross that threshold it will still take many thousands of years to melt an ice sheet.”

Evidence or not, President Obama, the EPA, and congressional Democrats know their priorities: We have seen the enemy, and his name is Carbon Dioxide. Evil activities like “producing energy,” “building things,” and “going places” need to be taxed and regulated further, or Carbon Dioxide wins! If this means the sort of government control Progressives wanted anyway, well, shucks, we’ll just have to make government bigger.

How well are “deniers” countering the decades-long drumbeat from global warming alarmists? A 12/01 Pew Research Center report tells the sad story:

The science isn’t nearly settled enough to slaughter thousands of jobs and billions of dollars on the enviro-altar, as Climategate 2.0 should prove (again). For more, refer to the work of Anthony Watts, Steven Hayward, Jeff Id, and Dr. Tim Ball, who makes the following point:

Few, including skeptics, want to confront the problem that temperature increase precedes CO2 increase in absolute contradiction to the major assumption of the AGW hypothesis. [...] Science must be about skepticism, otherwise the science is settled, but then it isn’t science.

Cross-posted from Big Government.

Always happy to attack Big Labor’s enemies, Sherrod Brown (D-OH) did so from the Senate floor during the debate over Craig Becker’s appointment to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). After being placed during a recess, Becker has driven NLRB’s lurch to the Progressive fringe, shoring up the power of key Democratic Party donors at the expense of workers and businesses across the country.

The Progressive fringe is Sherrod Brown’s wheelhouse (he is, after all, America’s left-most senator), so here is Sherrod’s response to complaints about Becker’s work for the union bosses NLRB oversees:

Whining that conservatives call his Socialist beliefs Socialist is a well Sherrod visits often, and Becker has helped Sherrod look ridiculous yet again. Poor, moderate, sensible Becker, before his recess appointment and subsequent bureaucratic rampage, was described thus by The Hill:

He is an adamant supporter of card-check legislation — a proposal that allows unions to form more easily, supported by the White House — and has done considerable work for the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union.

Republicans pointed to Becker’s glaring conflicts of interest, and Sherrod Brown’s rebuttal was to cry foul and call names. Anyone following the NLRB for the past two years knows how that turned out.

C-SPAN 2 clip transcript:

SHERROD BROWN: If, if no arguments work, it’s time to trot ACORN out and tie Craig Becker right to ACORN, whatever ACORN is. And, it’s just, it would be amusing if they didn’t use it time, after time, after time. “He must be a bad nominee because he worked with somebody from ACORN,” or, “He worked with somebody from the Service Employees International Union,” or, “He worked with Governor Blagojevich in Illinois!” That’s, that’s the kind of guilt-by-association that I thought this institution stopped doing 55 years ago when Joe McCarthy was censured.

Cross-posted at Big Government.

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) doesn’t have a voting record ranked as far left as Socialist Bernie Sanders by accident; Sherrod thinks a bigger central government is the answer to every problem. In this video, Senator Brown applies his trademark class warfare to the issue of Medicare, instructing a gathering of teachers’ union members to indoctrinate their family, friends, and students against cruel conservatism:

Like the first half of Sherrod’s answer to a question about whether privatization of government programs is a Wall Street conspiracy, there is so much stupid in this clip that it’s tough to begin. To his credit, Sherrod Brown is consistent! Sherrod consistently glosses over exploding federal deficits, consistently attributes the worst motives to anyone who tries to limit government’s power, and consistently brags about the wonders of failed Progressive governance.

Even with crippling tax hikes, the government programs whose praises Sherrod sings will bankrupt the nation by mid-century. Even if Medicare did amazing things for every American it served, only a fool or liar would fight reforms to a collapsing system.

This is why I ask, earnestly, my question from the end of the video: Is Sherrod Brown an idiot, or a dishonest idealogue? The brutal effects of Washington spending on America’s economy are plain to see, and unfunded entitlement liabilities total in the tens of trillions. Yet, as our fiscal canoe sloshes toward the falls, Sherrod Brown attacks with a straight face anyone who dares paddle backwards.

Sherrod’s mathematically outrageous and transparently political scare tactics are, like most every policy Sherrod has ever pursued, wrong for Ohio and wrong for America. Next November, Ohio should send Obamacare champion Sherrod Brown packing… along with the guy that awful legislation is named for.

Ohio’s government unions claim to represent simple, positive principles. Good jobs. Workers’ rights. Progress. The reforms in Issue 2 were voted down because union bosses warned dramatically, expensively, and dishonestly how dark Ohio would be with elected officials controlling local governments. If voters realized union power leads to higher taxes, they may not have been as quick to torpedo reform.

The agitators at the top of the union pyramid can now justify for awhile longer “earning” six figures by taking it directly from public employees’ paychecks. However, the scare tactics that worked for Issue 2 weren’t so effective when local voters considered higher tax levies. This means the gravy train will leave the rails a bit faster than expected – but the unions have a solution!

Months before Governor Kasich balanced an estimated $8 billion deficit without raising taxes, unions were demanding we cough up more money to fund their unsustainable benefits and backwards policies. Unions rallied for higher taxes despite a state and local taxation trend that looks like this:

Somewhere along the way Ohio’s “safety net” wound up around our necks, which isn’t especially comfortable for those of us unwilling or unable to flee. It’s hard to argue Ohio’s taxes should be higher, so the unions and fellow Progressives focus on attacking Governor Kasich:

1. It’s Kasich’s fault for discarding the Strickland school funding model! (Never mind that most districts are in the red, not just a handful on the margins.)
2. It’s Kasich’s fault for cutting local spending in the state budget! (Ignore those Strickland-era forecasts that prove local deficits have been on the horizon for years.)

In both cases the alternative is cloaked in Obamaesque euphemism about needing a “balanced approach,” if an alternative is mentioned at all. There’s not enough state money because of evil Republicans and racist mathematics, and Ohio’s union bosses need us to refill the tank. Until we do, they’ll force local governments to slash jobs and services, with the occasional face-saving concession for the sake of the Progressive cause. Over the next few months I’ll highlight districts forced into layoffs by untenable union contracts!

This is the system we have. Thanks to the Ohioans who let a cynical union campaign cloud their judgment, this is the system we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future. Ohio can still pull out of this tax-and-spend tailspin, but local and national unions won’t make it easy!

Cross-posted at Big Government.

Though the Wisconsin union circus produced widespread union-reform fatigue, you might be wondering what went wrong with Issue 2 in Ohio. As an Ohio conservative who happened to start researching government unions a few months before the General Assembly tackled reform, here’s my educated guess!

Executive summary: The unions spent several boatloads on dishonest class warfare, and Ohio voters failed to see through it.

First, some theories I don’t subscribe to. With the future of Issue 2 looking bleak leading up to yesterday, there have been rumblings that Governor Kasich and/or the Ohio Republican Party backed away from Issue 2 for fear of getting egg on their faces. I’ve seen no indication this is true.

A fairer guess is that including police and firefighters doomed Senate Bill 5; I hesitate to jump to this conclusion, if for no other reason than I advised excluding police and firefighters. It’s worth noting that police and firefighters figured heavily into the union smear campaign, but the bill’s reforms would have been assailed by unions of all stripes regardless of who was affected.

Perhaps the worst explanation – popular with that special brand of Ohioan whose motto is, “I’m a lifelong Republican, but” – insists Senate Bill 5 was an overreach. Ohio’s existing government union law isn’t a little broken; it’s completely broken. Republicans attempted to reform the Democrats’ 1983 bill in a single shot rather than spend the next 3 years fighting with unions. Blaming Issue 2′s defeat on this calculation misses the bigger picture.

What does the bigger picture look like?

Out-of-state union donations, grossly understated by Ohio media, far exceeded the “Yes on 2″ campaign’s entire budget. The Ohio Education Association (OEA), a despicable band of hypocrites whose average pay in 2010 was more than $95,000, took an extra $54 from every member to kill Senate Bill 5. OEA alone dumped more than $5.8 million into “We Are Ohio.”

Did the unions spend $30 million exposing an ill-advised portion of Senate Bill 5, or pushing some compelling argument about the need for powerful public unions? Hah! The unions spent more than $800,000 collecting signatures for the referendum; bragging that this constituted “grassroots” support was the most honest aspect of their campaign.

“We Are Ohio” claimed passing Issue 2 would mean fewer firefighters and nurses, leaving Ohio houses to burn and patients to perish. They released a radio ad saying Issue 2 would “take us back to the days of Jim Crow,” misrepresenting at every turn the effort to limit union power as an attack on Ohio’s middle class. They lied that Republican politicians exploited a “loophole” in the bill, though elected officials have never been subject to collective bargaining. They insisted local budgets were dandy before Kasich’s election.

Even without spending unprecedented amounts to mislead Ohio’s electorate, unions are built for fighting reform; union bosses become millionaires on the strength of their class warfare. In my opinion, Issue 2 came down to two questions:

1. How many Ohio government employees see through the Progressive narrative shoved down their throats courtesy of their mandatory dues?
2. How many Ohio taxpayers with friends & family in public work think for themselves when told Governor Kasich is out to steal workers’ benefits and punch their babies?

OEA & Co. don’t have to lumber into a defensive stance when their stranglehold is threatened. They just keep doing what they do every day – painting themselves as victims and taxpayers as villains. Yesterday it worked, to the detriment of everyone except the union bosses.

Sadly, a majority of Ohio voters were guilted into ignoring fiscal reality. In return for killing Issue 2, Ohio can expect:

• More tax hikes than would have been necessary with Senate Bill 5
• More layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and police than would have been necessary with Senate Bill 5
• More service cuts than would have been necessary with Senate Bill 5
• None of Senate Bill 5′s drop-dead obvious reforms to benefits & automatic pay hikes
• More lost House seats as employers and citizens flee

Those who voted No on Issue 2 have guaranteed the results they were told their votes would prevent. This is bad news for anyone who doesn’t get rich from the government union racket, especially the thousands of young public workers whose jobs will be sacrificed on the altar of union demands.

Cross-posted from Big Government.

From 2000-2010, Ohio lost 595,200 private industry jobs, faring better than only Michigan and California. In 2010 the state had the 7th-highest tax burden and 47th-best business climate. Although Governor Kasich has been working since January to get Ohio back on track, the forces of statism are deeply entrenched.

As public record proves, many of these folks get rich portraying big government as a moral imperative:

You have a chance right now to help a Midwestern swing state escape leftist control! Two Ohio ballot measures up for a vote on Tuesday deserve the full support of conservatives nationwide.

Issue 3 represents an unprecedented citizen-driven effort; its passage would amend the state constitution to block Obamacare’s individual mandate in Ohio. Conventional wisdom is that Issue 3 will pass, but efforts to kill Issue 2 may claim Issue 3 as collateral damage. If conservative Ohioans stay home Tuesday, union propaganda could prevent a repudiation of Obamacare.

Issue 2 has been the focus of a $30 million smear campaign, with an alphabet soup of unions framing government union reform as an “attack on The Middle Class.” There are many reasons to support Issue 2, but the best is also the simplest: Issue 2 restores a little power from union bosses to taxpayers.

Ohio’s status quo ensures that unions – instead of our elected officials – set the rules of public employment. Public wages are garnished for union propaganda and professional agitators’ pockets, while taxpayers are demonized over any effort to restrain spending. Their own employees describe Ohio union bosses as “rife with hypocrisy,” but $30 million buries a whole lot of dirt!

Far from theoretical, Ohio’s need for reform is rooted in fiscal urgency. Based on forecasts prior to Kasich’s election, 260 Ohio school districts will have deficits amounting to more than $500 per resident by 2015. Passing Issue 2 would ensure fewer layoffs, fewer tax hikes, fewer service cuts… as well as fewer six-figure union salaries. Any questions as to why AFL-CIO, NEA, AFSCME, and SEIU are dumping millions into a state ballot issue?

Like the broken law Issue 2 amends, I’ve been part of Ohio since 1983. Will you help me do good where decades of bureaucracy have done so much harm? Will you encourage Ohioans to free themselves from President Obama’s terrible policies and dishonest financiers?

Citizens of the Buckeye State, vote Yes on Issue 2 and Yes on Issue 3. Everyone else, please help counter union lies on your social media network of choice!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics and RedState.

I’ve reported previously that We Are Ohio, the group lying its pants off to kill Senate Bill 5, is funded chiefly by D.C. unions. Yesterday, Hot Air noted that the National Education Association (NEA) plans to spend as much as $5 million more to block the reforms passed by Ohio’s elected leaders.

If NEA is genuinely concerned about Ohio teachers, they are saints compared to their Ohio affiliate, the Ohio Education Association (OEA). Don’t believe me? Consider OEA pay, the words of OEA staff, the treatment of OEA retirees, and smears against non-union teachers, for starters.

Maybe NEA is different…

Why is NEA desperate to keep Ohioans from voting Yes on Issue 2? In addition to instituting merit pay, putting a stop to last-in-first-out firing policies, and requiring government workers to pay for a small portion of their benefits, Senate Bill 5 ends mandatory “fair share” dues taken from non-members.

Take a look at NEA pay and tell me it’s not about the money:

View complete spreadsheet, pulled directly from the union’s 2010 report to the U.S. Department of Labor.

36 NEA employees & officers were paid more than $200,000 last year. 97 NEA employees were paid more than $175,000. 183 were paid more than $150,000. 441 were paid more than $100,000!

Let me make sure I’ve got this right:

1. Teachers are grievously underpaid.
2. Corporations – who make “products” and “services” and sell them in a “marketplace” where people have “choices” – are to blame.
3. Teachers in Ohio and across the country pay NEA hundreds of dollars every year so NEA can elect big-government politicians, cheer on deficit spending, agitate for higher taxes, and become millionaires in the process.

Does NEA even allow math teachers to join?

Like all government unions, NEA is in the business of self-preservation at taxpayer expense. Opposing Senate Bill 5 won’t help get Ohio back on track… but that’s of no consequence to D.C. union bosses. Vote Yes on Issue 2!

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics and RedState.

President Obama is so concerned about the economy, he sent three major Bush-era free trade agreements to Congress after less than 3 years!

The deals, which were originally negotiated during the Bush administration, would boost U.S. exports by $13 billion a year; both the White House and congressional Republicans have touted the three pacts as a means of creating tens of thousands of jobs without requiring additional federal spending.

Our own Senator Sherrod Brown is clear about his stance on free trade: he’s against it.

“With an exploding trade deficit that has caused massive job loss, now is not the time to pass more wrongheaded free- trade agreements,” Brown said in a statement released after the White House sent the measures to Congress on Oct. 3.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a frequent pinata for Senator Brown, as it was for candidate Obama. Sure, the preponderance of evidence supports NAFTA and makes Brown & Obama look like demagogues, but there are competing figures for any issue. Sherrod also finds it convenient to talk about China instead of out-of-control spending – and to smear every trade partner as if they were the Chinese.

While common sense suggests we should do our best to compete in the global marketplace, Sherrod Brown would rather spend more of your money on union bailouts:

“This extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance and the Health Coverage Tax Credit is long overdue,” Brown said in a statement.

Sherrod Brown rails against free markets as if the purpose of government were to smother everything else, but there’s one industry Sherrod adores: unions. Maybe D.C. union bosses have a Sherrod-Signal on the roof! Whenever union clout is threatened, they throw the switch and Sherrod swoops in – with bags of taxpayer cash.

"Competition?! Light the Sherrod-Signal, boys!"

Senator Brown acts concerned about the trade deficit with China, but his only answer to much worse federal budget deficits is to soak the rich. At the moment, Ohioans can’t do much to prevent Sherrod from fighting free-market policies while throwing our money at union bosses… but 2012 is right around the corner.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and President Obama know that filling the $1.62 trillion U.S. budget deficit for Fiscal 2011 means forcing big corporations to pay their fair share. As a white-guilt-ridden capitalist pig, the least I can do is help with the calculations!

President Obama may be hedging on the EPA’s righteous destruction of American polluters, but that doesn’t mean dirty corporations are off the hook. Sure, we’ve already soaked several of the oil & gas giants, but the ill-gotten gains of a few more polluters will cover the nation’s budget deficit. Electric companies rely heavily on coal-powered plants… electric companies must pay!

Now Soaking: Exelon Corp.

• Reuters lists Exelon Corp CEO John Rowe’s compensation as $9,418,400. Rowe has been an Exelon executive since 2000, so he’s got enough money. His $9,418,400 will be much better spent by Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama!
• Exelon’s 2010 income statement lists $1,658,000,000 in corporate income taxes. We’ll double that amount to fund the spend-a-riffic Obama/Brown rebound!
• Doubling Exelon’s corporate income tax and taking their CEO’s pay will reduce the 2011 U.S. budget deficit by 0.103%.

None of Exelon’s 19,214 employees will lose their jobs if Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama work their not-at-all-socialist magic. The only funds & individuals holding Exelon’s 662 million outstanding shares of stock who suffer will be the ones who deserve to.

Don’t worry: this punitive tax policy won’t increase utility costs for the millions of Americans who buy electricity from Exelon subsidiaries or competitors!

We, The People who support Sherrod Brown’s fiscal policies, hold these leftist conceits to be self-evident.

Like a bad penny – or a good boomerang – President Obama keeps turning up in Ohio, transparently campaigning in what the White House hopes will still be a battleground state this time next year. After Tuesday’s Columbus visit demanding more deficit spending, the big guy is making a stop in Cincinnati next week… to demand more deficit spending.

As right-wing kooks warned long before Obama’s inauguration, the president has nothing to offer besides unsustainable government dependency. His latest spending bill is another case study in how to be Campaigner-in-Chief: a huge pander to unions and public employees, with just enough temporary tax relief to provide a centrist veneer.

In Ohio and throughout the country, local governments are grappling with the reality that governors can’t continue shoveling money their direction, because Washington can’t keep throwing money at the states. We can barely argue about spending public funds on “guns” versus “butter”: years of butter-budgeting have us buried in debt.

On this key issue, the Obama administration has been an abject failure. Congressman Paul Ryan, a Miami University alum, sets this fact into stark relief in a series of videos discussing his Path to Prosperity budget. Check them out, if you haven’t already – the third was just released this week:

Compare the GOP plan with Obamanomics, which hinges on complete denial of the most avoidable financial crisis mankind has ever seen.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.